In this essay, Nikhil Desai criticizes the violent Russian attack on the Greenpeace ship and the subsequent pre-trial detention of 30 activists. He argues that if concerns of energy security are allowed to degenerate into hallucinations of dominating the Arctic and brutal treatment of non-violent civic action, Russia or other such countries cannot be held to be responsible members of the international community of law-abiding states. The most powerful man in the world may now also be the most dreadful.
Nikhil Desai is an energy and environmental economist now dividing his time between Washington, DC and Ahmedabad, India.